Buckingham Palace & Horse Guards

A few pictures of the Buckingham Palace area plus one of the Horse Guards.

Buckingham Palace...the flag was up so the queen was in that day.

A statue within the roundabout at the Palace.

One of the gates.

One of the guards at the Palace.

One of the Horse Guards (not at the Palace, but in different area of Westminster, London)

Spamalot!...and some other sites

The Palace Theatre where we saw "Spamalot!"

Here we are in The Albert Pub. We stopped in since we had lunch here a few times before when we were in London.

For the Harry Potter fans, here are pictures of the infamous Platform 9 3/4 at London's King's Cross Rail Station.

Botantic Garden

On Saturday we visited the University of Cambridge Botantic Garden. It was a beautiful day and the Garden was highly recommended to us by Doris Keefer who came from Ashland Seminary in Spring 2007. We enjoyed walking through the large (40 acres) complex and seeing some interesting things. We hope you enjoy seeing some of our pictures. (Click on a picture to enlarge it.)

Our camera's timer helped us get a picture of us together.

The large fountain in the center of the complex.

It is hard to believe this was taken in England with the tall bamboo.

We saw palm trees and bushes too.

We think this looks like a large rhubarb plant. It was probably about 6 ft high.

Botanic Garden - Unique Features

We saw some pretty cool things at the Botanic Garden. Here are some of our favorite pictures:

This bird had lots of colors: gray, brown, black and a unique red & yellow beak!

This tree was large and the one branch was very long and hung quite low.

A "Bird of Paradise" flower.

Another unique tree...it is very tall and has an interesting branch too.

These are flowers (not a group of little birds!) that hung down off the plant and had bright red leaves with yellow and green tips.

Botanic Garden - Insects

John also took some amazing photos of insects that we thought you may enjoy seeing.

A bee just after getting the pollen for making honey.

A butterfly taking a break on a black-eyed susan.

A dragonfly resting its wings.

Another bee looking for pollen on these unique flowers.

One more bee on a pretty purple flower.

Grantchester Village

On Sunday we walked about 2 miles to the quaint village of Grantchester. It is a small village with some interesting characteristics. We found thatched houses and a neat church. We also saw the Byron Lodge B&B!

We initially went on the walk to visit "The Orchard." This is an outside tea room frequented by some famous people, among them were the poet, Rupert Brooke and author Virginia Woolf. It is very quaint and old fashion with the lounge-type chairs and small tables under a grove of trees. It was a warm, sunny day when we were there so it was crowded and somewhat lost its quaintness. We also decided not to spend nearly $15 for two scones & two cups of tea. Perhaps another day...

Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures at The Orchard. There are some great pictures and some interesting historical tidbits on their website at: http://www.orchard-grantchester.com/

Below are some pictures we did taken in Grantchester.

A smaller terrace house with a thatched roof.

A closer view of another house with a thatched roof...notice how the thatch hangs over the top of the window.

The Red Lion Pub, which also has a thatched roof.

Here is one of the signs for the Byron Lodge B&B. It has a thatched roof as well.

The Byron Lodge B&B in Grantchester.

Grantchester Church

We also spent some time in the Church of St. Andrew & St. Mary. The oldest part of the church is the chancel from the 14th century. The nave & the tower date to the 15th century. It was a beautiful church and we were able to view it all alone. The doors were open and we were the only ones visiting it at that time.

View looking towards the front of the church.

View to the back of the church, with the organ pipes above.

View to the back looking to the south side that was added in the 1870's.

Close-up of organ pipes.

The Font (Baptistery), which is believed to be built by Normans.